About me 自己紹介

I made a couple of puffy ponytail bows for my girl and her friends. I like to make these bows nice and fluffy by lightly filling them with polyfill.

娘とお友達用に、ふっくらリボンのヘアアクセサリーを数点作りました。このリボンゴム、ふんわり化繊綿を詰めているのでとても柔らかです～。

Back side of the bows shown above. 裏側はこんな感じです。

This is a very straight forward project that can be made quickly with small pieces of fabric and hair elastic. It can even be sewn by hand if you prefer not to use the sewing machine. If you're interested in making some for the sweetest girls around you (including yourself!), the project is featured in my book.

My eleven year old wearing the red puffy ponytail bow. It makes her mommy happy (and relieved) to see her girl wearing this bow to school, because we all know how picky this girl can be when it comes to her hair and hair accessories. Phew!

This week, I received the most charming handmade floral arrangement from Mrs. Y, my Japanese calligraphy instructor. (Yes I've been mastering the Japanese calligraphy art for the past several years).

今週、こんなに素敵なフラワーアレンジメントを私の書道の先生からいただきました。（子供の頃に習っていた書道を数年前から再開しています。）

According to Mrs. Y, the flowers were hand picked and delicately arranged just for me, to congratulate the publication of my book! As you can imagine, I was overjoyed to receive such a thoughtful gift, and we've been enjoying the fresh, elegant, and vibrant colored flowers in our house.

To accessorize the bags, I created original handmade labels using the stamps that I carved out from the erasers. For each and every bag, I stamped different eraser stamps using various colored inks.

いずれの巾着袋にも、手作りタグをつけてみました。タグは自分で彫ったけしごむはんこを使って手作り感いっぱいにしてみました。

Flower stamps in red, purple, and turquoise green ink. Once the fabric is pressed with hot iron, the stamp stays permanent.

こちらはお花のけしごむはんこを使って、赤、紫、青緑のスタンプを捺してみました。

This one is a blue bird stamped on the window fabric.

これは窓柄の生地に合わせて、青い鳥のけしごむはんこで。

Apple stamp for the apple fabric. A layer of red x white gingham check scrap adds the zakka taste to the apple label.

りんご柄の生地にはりんごのけしごむはんこを赤スタンプで捺してみました。赤ｘ白のギンガムチェックのハギレも合わせて雑貨テイストで。

And another bird stamp on the simple pinstripes.

こちらはシンプルなピンストライプの生地に赤い鳥のはんこを捺してみました。

Of course, I included some of my sis's favorite chocolate bars when I shipped these bags to her :) Maybe she liked these Godiva bars more than my handmade bags? lol

妹もチョコレート大好きなので、手作り巾着にチョコを添えてみました。もしかしたらこっちのほうが喜ばれたかも？

Eraser stamp carving needs some practice, but it's not difficult once you get the hang of it. I've covered the eraser stamp carving techniques in my book if you're interested in carving your own eraser stamps!

Before I go, I have a great announcement that Anna of Noodlehead joined the blog tour of my book! Which means we now have eleven blog hops to enjoy. The blog tour will begin from 6/24/13, so hope you stay tuned!

I usually make the bird's body with natural linen. But this time, I wanted to make a blue bird, so I used a navy linen for the body instead. As you can see, the lining is bright yellow x white pin dots print.

Thank you so much for entering this year's Sew Mama Sew giveaway! I really enjoyed reading your comments about what handmade zakka item you are interested in making!

Of 269 entries, I let the random number generator pick the winner number...

The numbers generated by this widget come from RANDOM.ORG's true random number generator.

The winner is #88 Barbara of Nahtante Quilts who said: "I like to make bags, pouches, baskets and small toy animals. If I have the chance to get an autographed book, I'm in for it! Thanks for the chance! "

Barbara, congratulations! You won the autographed copy of my book: Zakka Handmades! I will send you an email shortly to ask for your shipping address.

Thanks everyone for joining the fun and hope you have a gorgeous weekend!

The book's release date is June 1st, but it's starting to ship out this week from online retailers, including Amazon.com.

To enter, please leave a comment letting me know what handmade zakka item you are interested in making! (It doesn't need to be from the images from my book ;) Added note: Zakkain Japanese refers to any household or personal necessity that improves your life. Many handmade zakka are made of natural fibers of 100 percent linen, cotton, and wool. It's a broad term that include accessory, stationery, fashion items, toys, home goods, kitchen items, various containers, small furniture and more!

The giveaway will be open until Friday, May 10, 5:00 p.m. PST and the winner will be selected randomly. (I will ship internationally). If you're an anonymous commenter , please be sure to include your email address in your comment so that I am able to contact you when you win!

Don't forget to check back with Sew Mama Sew! for more chances to win other exciting giveaways!

This drawstring bag is made to fit my hubby's bento box (which is an ordinary square sized Glad container). I fix bento style lunches for my hubby and our girls every day, so we use many bento bags in our household. We wash them often, and so we need some extras.

But that's okay, because my hubby doesn't even notice the "heart" stamp anyway... All he cares about is what he's having for lunch that day (i.e., what's inside his bento box) and he doesn't care at all about the bag of his lunch box... lol